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The Garfield Show
The Garfield Show (French title Garfield et Cie) is a American/French CGI animated television series that premiered in France on France 3 on December 22, 2008. English-language episodes started airing on Boomerang UK on May 5, 2009. It premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network on November 2, 2009 at 3:00pm. It also airs on YTV in Canada, but taken off the air on July 11, 2011, due to the debut of Redakai: Conquer the Kairu, and returned on September 6, 2011 (near the end of Summer 2011). The Garfield Show resumed airing on Canadian children's network YTV on October 27, 2012. Based on the American comic strip Garfield, the series is executive produced by Garfield creator Jim Davis and co-written and voice directed by Mark Evanier, who also wrote most of the episodes for the Garfield and Friends series. Returning from Garfield and Friends are the voice actors Julie Payne (Liz) and Gregg Berger (Odie). Frank Welker replaces the late Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield, whereas Thom Huge as the voice of Jon Arbuckle is replaced by Wally Wingert. Also returning is David Lander, reprising his role as Doc Boy from the earlier Garfield prime-time special A Garfield Christmas Special (1987). The show is produced by Dargaud Media and Paws Inc. The show is directed by Philippe Vidal and the music is done by Laurent Bertaud and Jean-Christophe Prudhomme. Being primarily a French production, the show had its premiere in France in December of 2008, almost a year before it managed to get a deal with Cartoon Network for airing in the United States. As such, since Cartoon Network is still a season behind with their showing of the episodes, French viewers get to see new episodes of the series long before English-speaking viewers do. Plot The Garfield Show centers mainly on Garfield's usual antics and frolics, usually in function of his laziness and gluttony. It focuses on his quirky misadventures (often significantly darker, scarier and/or more bizarre than those found in the comic strip or previous animated adaptations), while always highlighting the fat cat's love for lasagna. Garfield lives with his owner, Jon Arbuckle, and his owner's dog, Odie, in a detached two story house (as opposed to the one story house in the comics and Garfield and Friends). The 1950s era television set in the living room still has a rabbit-ears antenna, but it now has a converter box so the family can now watch television in HDTV (in fact, several allusions to 21st century technology are made in the series). The premise of the show, which is comedic slapstick, lies mainly in the events of each single episode. Usually Garfield has to solve problems that he himself causes, but always tries to skive off, and actually solves them in the end. In the second season, Garfield began breaking the fourth wall more often, such as asking for the script for the episode, talking to the audience and even mentioning cartoon traditions, such as instant healing. Unlike Season 1, Season 2 kept borrowing characters who originated from a previous episode. These included Mama Meanie, Nate the neighbor, the Lawyer from the episode Depth of a Salesman, and Mr. Barker, Jon's boss. Luigi was a very ambiguous character whether highly appreciating Garfield for saving his business often or determined to prevent Garfield from stealing his lasagna or pizza. Many references to the 1988 Garfield and Friends TV series were made, such as the movie title "Kung Fu Creatures on a Rampage" borrowed from the 1989 episode Video Airlines, "The Klopman Diamond" which was a running gag in the original show, and the game show, "Name That Fish" which was from the 1988 episode "The Binky Show". Characters Main characters * Garfield * Odie * Jon Arbuckle * Nermal * Arlene * Dr. Liz Wilson * Squeak Minor characters *Eddie Gormand *Professor Bonkers *Doc Boy *Aunt Ivy *The Evil Space Lasagnas *Harry *Drusilla and Minerva *T3000 *Paddy *Vito *Pooky *Fluffykins *Mrs. Cauldron *Angie *Winona *Abigail Music Music 1: Music 2: Music 3: Music 4: Music 5: Music 6: Music 7: Music 8: Music 9: Music 10: Music 11: Episodes :Main article: List of The Garfield Show episodes Reception Despite receiving more episodes than usual for an animated series, The Garfield Show has received mixed reviews. Common Sense Media gave the show 3 stars out of 5, saying "Infamous cat's antics are fun, if not exactly message laden." Kevin Carr of 7M pictures gave the show 2 stars out of 5 stating that the animation felt unpolished compared to the direct-to-video movies and that the show was full of "throwaway stories" because it "aims for a more kid-friendly presentation of the fat feline." He concluded his review stating he preferred "old-school cell animation as the week-to-week series CGI looks too much like cheap video game emulations, but I’m not the target market of these things". Justin Felix of DVD talk gave the show 2.5 out of 5 stating that "The Garfield Show isn't some great work of art, but it efficiently delivers cartoon animal fun that little kids would probably enjoy. The animation is a tad rudimentary and clunky at times, but it's good enough to pass muster for cartoon fare of this type." Mike Gencarelli of Media Mikes gave the show 3.5 out of 5 stating "it doesn’t compare to the classic Jim Davis cartoon but it is all we have right now." The series has a 3.8 score on Metacritic touting unfavorable reviews. On IMDB, the show has a rating of 5,5 out of 10. Video game A party video game titled The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna was released in July 2010 for the Nintendo Wii. International airings * France: France 3 * Indonesia: MNCTV * China: CCTV-Kids * USA: Cartoon Network (Season 1-3) Boomerang (Season 4-Onward) * Ireland: TG4 * UK: Boomerang * South Africa: Boomerang Trivia *This is the second Garfield television series, and the first to feature computer graphics. *Pre-recorded dialogue, such as laughing and screaming, are often used for characters (particularly main ones). *The theme song is occasionally heard in episodes (mostly during chase scenes). *The first two seasons are available on Netflix. *The series was featured twice on the 2012 version of Cartoon Planet, both times on holiday-oriented episodes. Caroling Capers was shown on the December 16, 2013 episode, and Turkey Trouble on December 19, 2013. Gallery Garfieldshowtitle.jpg Jon's house.jpg Catnap.jpg |A cowardly Garfield hugging on Odie. As seen in Catnap Garfield on skateboard.jpg |Garfield and Odie riding on a kid's skateboard. As seen in Odie in Love. A Game of Cat and Mouse 2.jpg |Garfield and mice. As seen in A Game of Cat and Mouse. Heir Apparent 2.jpg |Garfield and the mimicing knight. As seen in Heir Apparent It's a Cheese World 2.jpg Lucky Charm 2.jpg The Pet Show.jpg |Nermal in the pet show. As seen in The Pet Show High Scale 2.jpg File:Credits.jpg|The Garfield Show Credits Garfield and Arlene - Glitter Gulch.jpg|Poster from "The Glitter Gulch" episode. Category:The Garfield Show Category:Television